Good Friday morning. (Actually, first I wrote “Thursday” and then realized with a jolt that the week is, in fact, OVER, technically speaking – hallelujah).
Supposed today is National Dress Up Your Pet Day, but I refuse to do anything but reject that because I am of the strong opinion that animals should not wear clothes.
Don’t get me wrong, I have been known to coo over an adorable photo of a small shivery dog in a sweater, and I do know that some dogs actually do need the additional protection when they go out in the cold.
Booties seem like a brilliant idea until you actually try to get them onto a very squirmy dog who has zero interest in wearing them. The foot shaking dance they do after the fact is both hilarious and pathetic.
Anyway, I found musher’s wax and never looked back.
I did ask the vet once if Henry needed to wear a coat, and he looked at me like I had two heads.
He’s a dog. He has fur (or, in this care, hair, because he’s hypoallergenic), for a reason. I also spare him the indignity of dressing up in silly costumes for Halloween, as much as I am tempted by those outfits that make a dog look like they’re carrying a package, or riding or horse, or whatever.
Today also happens to be the Orthodox New Year, which, rather inexplicably, is also known as the Old New Year, or Stary Novy God, in Russian.
Apparently, it is observed by Orthodox Christians who are recognizing the old Jan. 1 from back when we used the Julian calendar, a dating system introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BCE as a reform of the Roman republican calendar, which predated the Gregorian calendar – today’s internationally utilized civil calendar. (Much more on this whole calendar thing can be found here).
It is traditional to spend the day celebrating with friends and family, and perhaps hosting or attending a gala dinner or fundraiser. And this day is not to be confused with the start of the Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar, which traditionally begins on Sept. 1.
The New New Year (Jan. 1) is an official holiday in Russia. Old New Year is not officially recognized and workers don’t have the day off. It’s more of a relaxed and nostalgic kind of thing – especially if it falls on a weeknight.
If you do happen to have the day off…or are able to sneak away early, it’s going to be a rather windy afternoon, with sunny skies and temperatures in the low 30s.
There’s a wind advisory in effect for Saturday morning through about 10 p.m., with wind chills as low as 30 degrees below zero (yes, you read that right) possible in the Capital Region, Lake George/Saratoga area, Mohawk Valley, the Taconics, the mid-Hudson Valley, northwest Connecticut, and eastern Windham County in southern Vermont.
Bundle up good if you’re brave enough to head outside. But it sounds like a really great Saturday for lazing around the house.
For now, the headlines…
All but conceding defeat, President Joe Biden said he’s now unsure the Democrats’ major elections and voting rights legislation can pass Congress this year.
Democratic Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin doubled down on their opposition to changing the Senate’s filibuster, likely foiling Biden’s efforts to pass a voting rights bill.
Sinema stunned her colleagues just hours before Biden was slated to make his case to them in person at the Capitol by taking the Senate floor to declare that she would not support undermining the filibuster to pass legislation under any circumstances.
Biden also said that as “long as he has a breath” in him and as long as he remains president and is “engaged at all,” he is going to be “fighting to change the way these legislatures have moved.”
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced last night that the Senate will take up voting rights legislation on Tuesday, missing his self-imposed deadline to hold a vote on changing the filibuster by Monday, Jan. 17.
The Biden administration will announce three nominees for top jobs at the nation’s central bank, naming Sarah Bloom Raskin, Lisa Cook, and Philip Jefferson to fill spots on the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors.
Should the Senate confirm their nominations, Cook would be the first Black woman to serve on the Fed’s board while Jefferson would be the fourth Black man to do so.
The nominees would join the Fed at a particularly challenging time in which the central bank will undertake the delicate task of raising its benchmark interest rate to try to curb high inflation, without undercutting the recovery from the pandemic recession.
The Supreme Court issued mixed rulings in a pair of cases challenging Biden administration vaccine mandates, allowing the requirement for certain health care workers to go into effect while blocking another for businesses with 100 or more employees.
The rulings came three days after the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s emergency measure for businesses started to take effect.
Biden, whose approval rating has been sagging, expressed disappointment with the decision “to block common-sense life-saving requirements for employees”.
New York City’s various coronavirus vaccine mandates will stay in effect despite the Supreme Court ruling blocking Biden’s immunization requirement for large private businesses, according to Mayor Eric Adams’ administration.
The president announced his administration will purchase an additional 500 million COVID-19 tests and said he will soon detail plans for his administration to make high-quality masks free to Americans.
Throat swabs instead of nasal swabs might soon be the dominant – and more effective – method to test for COVID-19.
A nationwide coronavirus testing company under investigation by the Oregon Department of Justice and which has drawn criticism from customers in several states announced a “one-week pause on all operations.”
Biden said the U.S. has more than tripled the national stockpile of highly protective N95 masks to make sure they are widely available to the general public. He said masks are a crucial tool to help control the spread of omicron.
The Republican National Committee is preparing to change its rules to require presidential candidates seeking the party’s nomination to sign a pledge to not participate in any debates sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates.
In a letter dated Thursday, RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel outlines many objections and accuses the CPD of stonewalling the RNC’s requested changes to the process and of being biased. Her letter includes a number of suggestions for fixes.
Utah Sen. Mitt Romney said it “would be nuts” for the RNC to block GOP candidates from attending CPD debates.
The House’s GOP campaign committee earned $140 million in 2021, a significant increase from previous off-year records.
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose last week to the highest level since mid-November, but still low by historic standards.
U.S. jobless claims climbed by 23,000 last week to 230,000, the Department of Labor said. The four-week moving average, which smooths out week-to-week blips, rose nearly 6,300 to almost 211,000.
Some U.S. supermarkets are reducing hours and cutting services as Covid-19’s Omicron variant infects cashiers, baggers and stockers, deepening grocery chains’ staffing challenges.
In a handful of places that were among the first to see a surge of the Omicron variant last month, reports of new coronavirus infections have started to level off or decline.
The Omicron variant has highlighted a testing divide in American business, where some big companies have secured ample Covid-19 tests and kept workers coming in, while others have struck out and let workers stay home.
As Covid cases are rising across the U.S., some Amazon workers say they are scrambling to find tests to determine if it’s safe to return to work.
The Marine Corps granted two religious exemptions to the military’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate, making it the first and only military branch to grant religious exceptions since the requirement went into effect in August.
Tennis star Novak Djokovic has had his visa canceled once again ahead of the Australian Open as a furor over his Covid-19 vaccination status intensifies.
Australia’s immigration minister, Alex Hawke, said in a statement that he was canceling Djokovic’s visa on the grounds of “health and good order,” adding that it was in the public interest to do so.
Talk-show host Glenn Beck said that he is battling COVID-19 for the second time and, most concerningly, revealed that the virus is “getting into” his lungs.
Over 400 staffers at Vermont’s largest hospital are out of work due to COVID-19-related reasons.
New York reported encouraging but preliminary signs that the omicron COVID wave menacing medical centers may have started to recede.
“Nearly all” Christmastime COVID-19 patients in New York City were infected with the Omicron variant, according to the city Department of Health.
Nurses at overwhelmed public hospitals in New York City issued a public cry for help, describing overrun emergency rooms, hospital floors filled to capacity, and nurses running ragged as they struggle to take care of a surging patient load with fewer staff.
The NYC Education Department began negotiations with the teachers union to create a temporary remote schooling option for hundreds of thousands of kids who’ve been out with COVID-19 related absences, Schools Chancellor David Banks told parents.
“I’m willing to sit down and entertain with the UFT if there is a way to do a temporary remote option,” Mayor Adams told reporters during an unrelated press conference in Lower Manhattan.
Currently, parents must give permission for their children to be tested for COVID-19. The proposed change would instead require them to opt out, possibly significantly increasing the testing pool.
As the state’s eviction moratorium ends on Jan. 15, Gov. Kathy Hochul joined fellow governors to call on U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to make more federal pandemic funds available for struggling tenants and landlords.
Adams is calling for an immediate infusion of funds for New York’s Emergency Rental Assistance Program from the Treasury Department, and announced new measures to support tenant protections and inform tenants of their rights.
After laying out her priorities in the State of the State address, Hochul must now work with the Legislature to back her with funding and new laws.
While Hochul is renewing support for reviving takeout drinks from bars and restaurants, it’s far from being a done deal.
The head of the NYPD detectives union has urged Hochul to appoint a special prosecutor if newly elected Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg refuses to enforce the law in criminal cases.
Bragg said he was unaware of the efforts to get him ousted from office over his progressive prosecutorial agenda.
Long Island Rep. Tom Suozzi, who is challenging Hochul in the Democratic primary, called for a probe into whether she misused state aircraft to promote her campaign to keep the executive’s seat.
“She wasn’t doing her job as governor, to prepare for COVID,” Suozzi alleged of Hochul in a Zoom press conference. “She was politicking and fundraising. And she was using taxpayer-funded state aircraft.”
The New York State Building & Construction Trades Council — a union representing more than 200,000 construction workers across the state — endorsed Hochul for the hotly contested 2022 New York governor’s race.
Hochul repeatedly met with a Chinese government official who claimed that human rights violations in China were “lies” and praised the Communist Party of China (CPC) as a “great party.”
Days after Adams sparked a wave of criticism for naming his brother to a top NYPD job, the mayor said he would defer to the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board on whether his sibling gets to keep the post.
Adams dodged questions about giving his brother a six-figure security gig — insisting the media has mischaracterized the controversial choice of hiring a family member for such a high-paying role in his administration.
A member of Adams’ transition team approached the commanding officer of the NYPD gun licensing division in December to ask about obtaining gun permits for civilians who would potentially be assigned to protect City Hall.
A highly respected top jails investigator says Adams’ new correction commissioner abruptly fired her after demanding she “get rid of” an impossibly large number of pending use-of-force disciplinary cases against staff.
Adams said he believes in accessibility but he does not demand frequent one-on-one updates from his staff. “I’m a big Google Docs person,” he said. He also meditates every morning and sometimes opens stressful meetings with breathing exercises.
New York City’s new tough-on-crime mayor, Adams, has cut the Civilian Complaint Review Board’s budget by 3% — along with a number of other city agencies — for the rest of this fiscal year and the foreseeable future.
Adams said he has not talked to the co-owner of the Bronx building that went up in flames over the weekend — even though the man serves as a member of the mayor’s transition committee.
Tenants of the Bronx building where a deadly fire occurred last weekend voiced two complaints: that money being raised for victims’ families and other residents was not reaching them quickly enough and that they are being encouraged to return too soon.
Ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s attorney held a nearly two-hour news conference to try to undermine the credibility of some of the women who accused him and to sharpen her broadsides against the state attorney general’s office.
Attorney Rita Glavin alleged that one of Cuomo’s accusers, Lindsey Boyland, got “more than professional” with the state’s economic development czar — and later used a special, super-secret messaging app to threaten him.
Glavin called for a new independent review of the allegations against Cuomo, accusing Attorney General Tish James of a shoddy, one-sided investigation with a predetermined outcome, and adding that the report ignored evidence that was favorable to Cuomo.
“You can’t start a case by saying you believe all women…What you can say is everybody has a right to come forward, men, women,” Glavin said. “And they have a right to have their allegations scrutinized, evidence collected, and then you make a determination.”
The feds this month made good on a handshake deal between former President Donald Trump and Cuomo on the extension of the Second Ave. Subway to East Harlem after more than two years of delays.
The state Department of Environmental Conservation is releasing $766,000 for work on dams across the state that are in need of repair or upgrades.
SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras is eligible for a $450,000 one-year paid leave and lifetime employment, according to his contract, though the terms of his severance are still “under review” due to ambiguous language contained in the document.
With a multi-year legal dispute between the Seneca Nation of Indians and New York State over casino revenue sharing now over, local communities impacted by the conflict are busy figuring out what they may be owed.
The City of Saratoga Springs’ Design Review Commission narrowly approved a controversial proposal for a six-story building at 269 Broadway that neighbors and historic preservationists say will overwhelm the street.
Disbarred former Guilderland Town Justice Richard Sherwood is out of federal prison less than six months after a judge rejected his request for early release and gripes that life behind bars was “far beyond the pale.”
A new analysis of U.S. patent data by the Center for Economic Growth has revealed that the Capital Region’s video game cluster is not just publishing new video game titles – it’s innovating by creating new video game technologies.
Prince Andrew, the second son of Queen Elizabeth II, has been forced to relinquish his military titles and royal charities, a stinging rebuke by the British royal family a day after a federal judge in New York allowed a sexual abuse case against him to go ahead.
The palace said that Andrew, 61, who has been accused by Virginia Giuffre of raping her while she was a teenager, would also no longer use the title “His Royal Highness,” a prized symbol of his status as a senior member of the royal family.
The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol subpoenaed four major social media companies criticizing them for allowing extremism to spread on their platforms and saying they failed to cooperate adequately with the inquiry.
The committee issued subpoenas to Google parent company Alphabet Inc., Meta Platforms Inc., Reddit Inc. and Twitter Inc. after receiving what the committee called inadequate responses to its prior requests for information.
Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s refusal to be interviewed by the committee raised the prospect of a subpoena of the highest-ranking House Republican, prompting legal questions with little court precedent and escalating the political stakes of the investigation.
Gov. Gavin Newsom of California denied parole to Sirhan B. Sirhan, departing from the recommendation of a state parole panel in August that the man convicted of assassinating Robert F. Kennedy be freed.
Navient, one of the largest student loan servicers, will cancel $1.7 billion in private student loans after a deal it reached with 39 states.
